Those Mobile Phone Wielding Drivers
By Ieuan Dolby, Sat Dec 10th

A taxi driver in Singapore recently drove his taxi headfirstinto a rather deluxe condominium swimming pool! At thesubsequent court case the driver was fully exonerated from anyblame on the grounds that it was raining heavily at the time ofthe incident and (would you believe it?) that no barriers werein place around the pool. If anybody was to ponder over thisscenario it would not be hard to conjure up a few chinks andcracks in the stories armor. Well, swimming pools do notnormally reside directly in front of condominium entrances asthose living there tend not to favor passerby’s peering in! Oh,and who would design it such that drunken residents, returninghome from a night on the town, are faced with an assault coursebefore being allowed to their apartment and to bed? I would alsoquestion the lack of lighting around the driveway, the speedthat the taxi was taking and his knowledge of the area. Butgoing no further; the driver was so obviously doing whatmillions of other people are doing right now – he wasconcentrating away on his cell phone, weaving and ducking aroundplant pots and over grass verges and was not able to fully applyhimself to staying on the driveway! A point to back-up thisreasoning is that Singaporean taxi-drivers always ring thecustomers upon arrival at the pick-up point. So this driver waswithout doubt struggling to call his future passengers to comedown, whilst paying little attention to the large sign that said“swimming pool ahead”!

Mobile Phone usage by drivers on the move has increasedworld-wide. Many officials, governments, safety bodies, otherdrivers and pedestrians are becoming seriously worried aboutthis modern phenomenon. The National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration (NHTSA) in the USA conducted a survey and came upwith some startling and very shocking data! The results showedthat 1.2 million people or 8% of drivers in the States wereusing handheld or hands free cell phones during daylight hoursin 2004; a 50% increase since 2002 and a 100% rise in fouryears. Mr. Ray Tyson, a spokesperson for NHTSA shared his viewswith us: while we don’t have hard evidence that there’s been anincrease in the number of crashes, we know that talking on thephone can degrade driver performance”. Thanks Ray for theenlightenment but why did you restrict the survey to daylighthours only, do you expect mobile phone wielding drivers toalways tell the truth and why don’t you have any hard evidence?Ray clearly reduced his statement to casual observation statusrather than committing himself or the NHTSA by shouting outloudly to the world that the situation was reaching disastrousproportions ………..etc!

Over in Japan recent statistics shine another bad light on thesituation. The Japanese Police produced some hard evidence(maybe they should contact RAY) of 1140 car accidents thatoccurred in Japan during a three month period in 1996! All ofthese accidents occurred due to drivers being distracted bytheir mobile phones in one way or another. In fact the policewent a little bit further: 9 people died of these accidents! 45%of these accidents happened while drivers attempted to answertheir ringing phones. 28% while drivers tried to combine drivingwith dialing, 18% while the drivers were talking and theremaining 11% due to other causes like scrambling under the seatto retrieve a dropped phone having just swerved out of the pathof an oncoming camper van on cruise control!

Oh! And heading back to the Americas some objective ScientificResearch from some body in Toronto shows that the risk of beinginvolved in a traffic accident increases fourfold if a mobilephone is used whilst driving! Thanks for that, maybe thesescientists were spent some time with Ray!

Zooming across the Atlantic, over the Middle East, China and toTaiwan! A country that manufactures and has its hand in theproduction of many electronic devices currently being used inthe world today! As a pedestrian crossing any road in Taiwan issimilar to putting ones head in the mouth of a lion, it is adangerous event that most achieve by closing ones eyes and witha rapidly beating heart just taking the plunge – crossing theroad that is! Recently this style of heart racing adventure hasjust gotten a little bit better: drivers manically wielding cellphones have dramatically increased the heart in mouth adventureof trying to get to the other side! It is still similar toputting ones head into a lion’s mouth, but a lion that has onlyjust finished chomping to death its keeper, that is beingprodded by a child with a stick between the bars and has beenforced to listen to a mobile phone users checking out is newring tones!

There has never been a co-coordinated system of traffic flow inTaiwan; a total lack of respect for traffic lights andpedestrians exist and weaving drivers on betel nut (a chewy nutthat causes hyper activity when chewed and drowsiness in-betweenchomps) just adds to the general fun! Most pedestrians hug wallsand sneak along with eyes working overtime as potentiallyhazardous drivers are logged and tracked by a well-developedbrain radar system brought on by a desire for survival. Onlylast week a bus zoomed by with a cargo of terrified childrenpeering helplessly and desperately out of the windows; thedriver was happily conversing on his mobile whilst weaving anunstoppable course through various red lights at well over themoral speed limit! Another recent incident which in retrospectis quite hilarious was when two moped drivers approached eachother across an intersection. Their speeds were not great andthe whole scenario played out as if in slow motion; each wasconcentrating on their respective conversations, each wasweaving drunkenly forwards in fits and starts and as ifpre-ordained they collided head on. A tangled heap resulted butwithout serious injury or damage. But what is even morehilarious is that both individuals picked themselves up, brushedthemselves off and without acknowledging each other orscrambling to shift blame they both reached around for the cellphones. And without pause they continued their conversations –why let a mere traffic accident get in the way of a call? Whoknows, maybe they were talking to each before they crashed andafterwards were busy obtaining each others insurance details –all over the phone!

Even worse than being a pedestrian these days is to find oneselfsitting in the back of a taxi with driver who feels the urge toconverse not with you but with his mobile! Suddenly from being anormal driver who bores his passengers to tears with stories ofhis economic plight or Liverpool’s recent football score,emerges a maniac of WW11 convoy evasion tactical ability! Thedriver suddenly decides that any action of the foot on the gaspeddle must be immediately followed by one on the brake andpassengers find themselves alternately with their heads embeddedinto the seat in front or their bodies lying twisted and mangledagainst the rear window! From a driver, who although wasnaturally aggressive in his driving managed with skill to avoidothers, emerges a monster. A massive monster who will play headon “who will brake first” games with a speeding tank, who willassume that spaces the size of a shopping trolley willmysteriously expand if he gets enough speed up and who considersthat all other drivers are mere figments of his imagination!

Indeed the mobile phone driving syndrome situation is far worsethan authorities, governments, Ray, the Japanese Police and thebored or underpaid scientist’s state. This maybe due to the factthat most of the above mentioned bodies and groups tend to usetheir very own mobile phones whilst driving to work every day so……….can’t make too much noise now can they!

One country is stepping up its efforts to clamp down on this newmenace! The UK! As of 2005 drivers caught using mobile phoneswill be immediately fined 60 pounds and have three penaltypoints on their driving licenses! In fact Ms Janet Anderson, MPfor Rose and Darwin ( a couple of houses in England connected bya single lane dirt track) clapped her hands in delight uponreceiving a report that hands-free kits (once heralded as a safealternative) were nearly as dangerous as actual hand-heldphones! She went on a bit further to say that, “it must be madecrystal clear to drivers who insist on behaving in this way thatthey endanger the safety of the public generally and their ownsafety too”! Yippee!

Still in the UK - recent tests at the Transport ResearchLaboratory have shown that drivers on mobiles have a slowerreaction time and stopping time than those under the influenceof alcohol! It does not really take a team of highly paidscientists and many pounds later to figure that one out: it isblatantly obvious that a driver under the influence will beapplying every ounce of his available concentration on hisdriving, albeit slightly misguided, whilst a driver on hismobile will not be concentrating at all! But the findings ofthis year long study did place in writing some much needed dataand statistics that can now be used and wielded by those tryingto clamp down on the menace! At last some hard evidence!

Hopefully the future will change people’s attitudes regardingmobile phone usage! Hopefully normal people will not feel theurge to be in contact 24/7, will not suffer withdrawal symptomsshould they be disconnected for a nanosecond and be able to notanswer a ringing phone – in fact it would be superb if peoplecould actually

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switch mobile phones off sometimes!

But this is way, way, way into the future! As far away as usconversing with aliens from the planet “zong” in the “xzihngty”galaxy about them trying to eat us for breakfast! In themeantime it will be up to governments and the introduction ofnew laws to clamp down on the menace and thus make drivers thinktwice before answering or making calls whilst on the move!

Maybe the answer is not to punish drivers through penalty pointson their license or the threat of paltry monetary fines:

“You have been found guilty by this court of talking on a cellphone whilst driving. You will from this day forth not beallowed to own, borrow, use or even look at a mobile phone, PDFor portable communication device for a period of ten years.Additionally you will complete three months of community serviceupon completion of which you will attend counseling in “how tosurvive on this planet without being in constant touch”. Uponcompletion of this course you will then attend a four weekcourse titled, “how to use a phone that is connected to a landline”. Take him away boys!

The only crisis left to solve would then be to clamp down onthose drivers who insist on doing a full make-over in therear-view mirror whilst doing 60MPH through a built up area! Toput a halt to business men who assume that drivers’ seats arewonderful places to shave, rinse and swallow! To convince shortsighted people that, “cleaning ones specs” by removing them andwhilst navigating a hair bend in icy conditions is not reallysensible. Oh, and that various forms of sexual attention mightbe pleasurable at the time but not when subsequently wrappedaround a lamppost or underneath an HGV still doing 60MPH downthe freeway!

When these drivers have had their shaving kits and make up bagsconfiscated and are safely tucked away behind bars then it mightbe safe for the average pedestrian to step foot outside onceagain and with confidence, without fear of being mowed down bycars driven by self-engrossed and selfish drivers who assumethat the conversation they are currently having is moreimportant than life!

About the author:Author and Webmaster of Seamania. As a Chief Engineerin the Merchant Navy he has sailed the world for fifteen years.Now living in Taiwan he writes about cultures across the globeand life as he sees it.